Don’t be shocked if you hear or see a HH65 Dauphin overhead tonight between midnight and 2 a.m. (Photo: www.richard-seaman.com.)

If you happen to hear or see planes directly overhead tonight, it will be a training flight exercise being conducted by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). According to Alert DC (see complete message below), the exercise will take place in the DC region between midnight and 2 a.m.

I still remember seeing the Air Force fighters on patrol over Washington in the weeks after the September 11 attacks eight years ago. And since Borderstan is close to The White House, we sometimes awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of large military helicopters in the neighborhood flying close to the ground. It was always a thrill to wake up at about 3 a.m. with a helicopter hovering over our house.